Update on progress (or the lack of):
I have upgraded W10 Mobile OS to the latest release, tried a hard reset, even tried with the latest Insider preview, but the problem persists.
This is what I've tried:
1. Settings > System > About > Reset your phone (and erase my SD card)
This took a while, then I was presented with what looked like a factory reset phone... but it isn’t since it keeps the last version of the OS installed (OS build: 10.0.14393.321), not the one which came with the phone.
2. Did the initial config, configuring Wifi, but skipped everything else I could, NOT connecting to my outlook.com account.
3. I could not use the Outlook Mail straight away since it said I had to upgrade first, so I've updated the app (together with many other apps automatically selected for an update).
4. Then I've configured just ONE email account (IMAP4), using Choose an account > Advanced Setup > Internet Email), and set the senders name to my name, as “FirstName Surname”, Email address as “my@email.com” (using these just as examples, on the phone I’ve put in my real name and my real working email account).
5. Once the account was successfully set-up, clicked on ‘Ready to go’, inbox got synced, email messages downloaded ok.
6. Then I’ve tried sending an email with just this one email account configured.
- when composing the message, From: field has my email address not my real name (ok, that's the same as on Desktop W10 Mail app, not a major problem, just strange / different from every other email client I’ve used)
- when the email message is delivered (I am looking at it using desktop Ms Outlook 2013 client), the From: field still shows only my email address (this is different from the Desktop W10 Mail app, where on delivery, the From: field shows the real name)
The two apps I was comparing were:
- mobile: Outlook Mail version 17.7369.40738.0
- desktop: Mail version 17.7369.40731.0 (so a bit older than the mobile app)
I’ve checked the email headers on the two test messages (one sent from my mobile another from the desktop app) and I can see that From fields are different:
- mobile originated message has (no real name)
From:
my@email.com
- desktop app originated message has (real name and email in <> brackets, as expected)
From: "FirstName Surname" <
my@email.com>
So I can be definitely certain that it is not my email server causing this issue, since it works with the W10 Desktop Mail app (as well as Ms Outlook 2013) from the desktop.
7. Then I’ve tried adding myself as the only contact in the People app with my name the same as the sender name and the same email address as the one configured in the email account settings. There is only 1 contact in the People app (the one I’ve just created) and this does not sync with outlook.com or other contact sources.
No change, same bad result. On receipt the real name is missing from the From: field in the message header.
8. Then I’ve repeated the above process while getting the ‘Fast’ Insider preview OS build (10.0.14946.1000) which has the same Outlook Mail app (17.7369.40738.0). No change, same bad result.
-
My conclusions is that this is a bug with the latest Outlook Mail app on W10 or some underlying email account management functions in W10 Mobile.
It is insane that such a basic feature, as sending the real sender’s name, does not work! I am starting to understand why people are abandoning W10 mobile…
I have two more questions:
Q1. Does anyone know where the email account settings are stored on the phone?
I am thinking Registry entries, hidden files or folders, local database... perhaps this could be hacked into working somehow. I've tried looking around the Registry with the Interop Tools but could not find anything relevant.
Q2. Is there a way how I can go back to an earlier version of the Outlook Mail app and/or OS on my W10 phone?
If you got this working somehow on your phone, please let me know how.
Thank you!
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